BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT (But it could be wrong)

By the time the meeting at my father's office rolled around, I was quite sure the prophecies were just a confusing mess of words and imagery, without any time and place to anchor it on, they could mean anything.

But the adults seemed quite calm when hearing the Lorent's prophecy, they listened intently, took notes and nodded and hummed as if they totally understood what it meant.

Then when it was done, they all looked up at me expectantly. What? What were they expecting from me?

I, in turn looked at my own gang for clues, Ben and Jonah made clueless faces, Savy was frowning, Lizzy had her hand over her mouth, with an OMG expression.

"What?" I asked in Lizzy's direction.

"OMG! Your life is like one of those stories you read in the library!" Lizzy gasped.

"Okay," I allowed, "And if it were, can you tell me what will happen?"

Lizzy frowned, "Like the happy ending type or the sad ending type?"

"Whichever is most likely." I answered.

"Why not...we hear both?" Beta Lucas asked.

Really? Why were the adults even interested in this? I was just stalling...

"Okay," Lizzy obliged, "Bad news first: Rebel comes with a huge army and turns out to be your mate. He wants revenge on his pack so he kills Alpha James, and conquers our whole packland. You, Sam, runs away from him because he is such a bad guy. But he chased you and kills you by accident. And will then have to live without a Luna or heir for the rest of his life."

"Or maybe you won't be killed, and you manage to run away successfully. If so, please take us with you." Lizzy added as an afterthought.

Ben rolled his eyes, "What's the good version?"

Lizzy looked very pleased, "Oh, you'll like this one Sam. Rebel comes with his army. And just when all hope seems lost, Your mate comes to the rescue with his army. He kills Rebel and saves our packlands and we all live happily ever after."

"I think Rebel is Sam's mate." Gamma Harry interjected, "How do you find so many wolf warriors for two armies? It has to be the same army."

"Unless Rebel's army is made from vampires and warlocks." I pointed out gently.

Gamma Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. The silence grew heavy immediately.

"Technically, it could be anything right?" Ben groaned. "We're just swinging blindly in the dark here."

"Not necessarily Ben." Mrs Beta gave her son a stern look. It looked like a "I have taught you better than that son" kind of look. And Ben was immediately subdued. He stepped back by my side.

Mrs Beta continued, "Sometimes to unlock the prophecy's interpretation, we need to ask the right questions, such as who the prophecy was given to, who gave the prophecy, and for what purpose the prophecy was given for. This give us the lines to draw out the interpretation with."

Ah yes, the right perspective.

So if the prophecy was given to Alpha Lorent by Fount, the warlock, who was at that moment friends. Then the prophecy was a warning? Or.. I think about my mate's dream of the army, and my dad's words that Fount probably thought he was doing Alpha Lorent a favor… Then the prophecy was probably instructional.

INSTRUCTIONS TO ALPHA LORENT:

BY FOUNT (interpreted by Sam Kingsley)

Name your son Rebel, he's a bad boy, and will probably drive you up the wall, but train him well cos he's going to be somebody. And you should probably be nice to him so he won't hurt you when he comes to power. PS. Don't expect a Luna or heir from him. So don't give him grief about it.

Really, it's got nothing to do with me. Unless he is my mate. Then I can't expect to be his Luna.

~That's good, because I'm the Alpha.~

What? Hahahaha... My Wolfie made a good point.

Mrs Beta then proceeded to present her interpretation, which was similar to mine, but with nicer sounding phrases, and without my power crazy wolfie boasting about being the Alpha. My dad thanked her and told Beta Lucas to email it in writing to him to respond to Alpha James.

"So what now?" Gamma Harry asked, "That had nothing to do with us."

Perhaps that's true, and our packs would face our own individual wars this generation.

"And what if Sam is his mate?" Gamma Harry seemed to suddenly thought of it. "He won't have a Luna mate, it said!"

"Don't worry about that." I grinned, "I'm not going to be his Luna... I'm the Alpha remember?"

Ben grinned. Lizzy and Savy threw high fives, "Yes! Minority rules!"

"No," I held out a finger, "I rule."

And we all burst out laughing. Even Jonah. The adults shook their heads, I could hear them thinking, "Still just a bunch of pups."

I don't know if James Rebel Lorent the Third was my mate, but if he was, someone should give him or whoever was my mate a prophecy - your mate will not submit to you easily. She will be very, very, difficult.

Suddenly, I remembered my dream with dumbbell shaking his head in exasperation, "Do you have to be so...so difficult?"

Message delivered. Good job Goddess. You certainly have all the grounds covered.

My dad nodded, "Alright, Sam said she had ideas to help the Lorents recover their lost son."

"Do they still want him back?" I asked, "I mean, maybe it might work out better for them if he never returned."

Mrs Beta spoke then, "Oh Sam, never underestimate a parents love. Even if he returns to enslave them, they would still wish him safely home."

No one else refuted that.

Yeah, I know not every family was like this, but mine was, and so were the ones here right now. And it would seem Rebel too had such a home. I guess that's the true meaning of home.

I can't believe why anyone would run away from something like that. All I knew is, at the end of the day when we got him home, and if Rebel still didn't reform and learn to treasure the ones who love him, I'm going to take the hour long car drive over to give him a piece of my mind.

Poor Alpha James and Luna Edith. I wonder how much they have cried for their lost son by now.

Stoopid rebel. Come home soon and wipe up the tears you spilled!

"Okay! Here are my ideas. They are just really rough outlines on how we can save Rebel and bring him home."

Jonah looked unsure, "Won't we be going against the prophecy? Like if we rescued him, he wouldn't be there to become the vampire master or whatever."

"And he wouldn't be able to bring an army back to us!" Gamma Harry sounded like it was a good idea.

"Wait, so we just leave him there to rot?" I asked.

"Sam," it was Beta Lucas again, "Why do you care so much about saving the Lorent boy?"

"What?" I was a little stunned by the question.

"I need you to think very carefully, is he your mate?" Beta Lucas asked.

I thought about all the things I've thought so far, "I don't know, BUT I'm not doing this because he might be my mate. I want to do this because I want to try. If it can help Alpha James and Luna Edith, I want to do something."

The adults were very quiet for a while. They looked at the plans... Then my dad spoke, "Alright, Sam, please tell us what we are looking at."